Thinking Out Loud.....

Ducky, love your party stories...it is amazing that so many made it. 
It's so nice that your grandson knows he has your support during this time.  I hope the shower went well and that love will abound among the parents and other family members.  They will figure it out....if the parents let them.
Yup, quiet here...

Hi Chris, glad you signed on. What are your kids doing for the summer?

Hi Ducky, hope all is going OK.
Quiet all around here.

(((TOL)))

(((TOL))

Hi Joan........miss you girly..............was talking to Chevy about ;you the other day on the Crazy Town thread.........love the thread..............Joan you need to come over and join us.......what a great bunch of ladies.........no crap, no nasty, and we love each other..................stop by..........hugs.....

Hi Sheila.......Happy Thanksgiving..........hugs

Yes Joan she will.......such a lovely lady..........

Hi ducky..it's good to be connected again.

I'm doing OK...

Hugs

Hello ladies - long time, no post.

Was sad to see that Sandy passed.

DD is starting year #5 in college. She changed schools a couple yrs ago and some credits didn't transfer and then she couldn't get into a couple classes when she needed to...so.... she is on the extended plan.

DS is starting year #3 - doing pretty well - could do better in some classes - I hope he raises the bar for himself a little bit. He had a job over the summer working in a flooring manufacturing company - they really liked him so that is encouraging.

DD works at LLBean and they like her there as well. And one of her professors likes her too. There are 2 classes that she could take next semester that have trips. One is a tropical bio class and the other is desert bio. The tropical bio class trip is to Costa Rica so of course, everyone wants to do that trip. Her professor that teaches the desert bio class said he wants her to go on that trip and if she signs up, he will push for her to be able to go. I guess a limited number of students can go. He said she is fun and enthusiastic. I asked her in what way she shows she is enthusiastic and fun and she said she says things like, "That is so cool!" or "That is so gross, but it's so cool!" I hope her enthusiasm and personality can make up some for her less than perfect grades.

What brings me here is that I wanted to let you know that my mother died recently. She was declining, but I didn't expect her to die now. She had dementia - but I wasn't sure what kind. I suspected it might have at least started as vascular dementia - but didn't know for sure and won't know - they didn't do an autopsy. Even though I felt as though I had been losing her slowly over the years and she was pretty much gone most recently except for the occasional quip - she really couldn't say too much at a time - it is still difficult now that it is final. I have a knot in my stomach. I already had a knot in my stomach, so I suppose now I have a bigger, tighter knot.

When my father was making calls to family the day she died, I found out that in addition to the people in my family I already knew had cancer, there are even MORE people that have cancer in my family! wth?!!

My father was recently diagnosed with MDS - luckily it is a less bad form - only 1 type of blood cell is affected - he's getting weekly Procrit injections to try to raise his red blood cell count (or hemoglobin or whatever they are measuring). I don't really know what will happen with that condition.

One of his brothers has lymphoma and another brother has multiple myeloma!! I had an uncle on my mother's side that had lymphoma (he beat it and died from something else) and my mother's mother had multiple myeloma at age 81 (died a couple months after diagnosis).

With my father developing MDS and so many others with similar blood disorders, I wonder if that puts me at increased risk of developing MDS after chemo - like Robin Roberts. Yay - something else to worry about.

And in addition to all that cancer I already knew that my aunt (by marriage) has stage 4 breast cancer and her daughter, my cousin, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer (age 31) (she had neoadjuvant chemo and recent surgery showed clear nodes - so that's good) AND I found out another cousin (late 40s) has cancer (not sure of the details, but I thought I overheard my aunt say something about it being in her bone) omg

I knew that my family seemed to have a tendency to develop cancer - but an aunt and uncle had lung cancer and I don't smoke, so I thought I might dodge that bullet. A grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer around age 70, but she lived to 92 - grandfather had prostate cancer - lived to 89... Other grandmother had mult myeloma at 81 (and possibly breast cancer but the mult myeloma was what was going to kill her so they didn't focus on the bc). So I figured if I lived long enough I would probably get bc - I just didn't think I would be 42. And I thought that since my uncle beat lymphoma, I thought that even though my family might tend to develop cancer, they respond to treatment, so I might be okay. So far so good, but what is up with all the freaking cancer?!!!! Probably our poisoned environment, hormones, and antibiotics and pesticides in our food all were contributing factors.

Ugh.

So that's my life - I hope everyone here is doing well.

(((((((TOL)))))))

Terry -great post. It is nice to see some of you come back. I see our stats our similar. This is a scary ride.

Sheila888......so glad to see you...........hope your well..........are we all still ...THINKING OUT LOUD....

Very good for an old broad.............LOL..........